Profile

Native NameNone

Total Speakers4,000 (1987)

Usage By CountryHome Speakers: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia

Background It belongs to the Uralic family, Finno-Ugric group, Finnic subgroup, and is spoken by 30,000 to 35,000 people, chiefly in Norway. The language is similar to Finnish, but the two languages are actually largely different. Since the Lapps are of different racial stock than the Finns, it is assumed that about 2,000 years ago they adopted the language of the ancestors of the Finns. Subsequently many words were borrowed from the Scandinavian languages.There are three main varieties: North (or Central) Sami, spoken in the northernmost parts of Norway and Sweden, East Sami, spoken in Finland and Russia, and South Sami, spoken in Norway and Sweden. The use of Sami in schools is now encouraged.